An Obvious Tangent
by ngeo
Summary: AxS, OOC elements, now with low-key adult situations, and even more swearing. A boy and a girl feel used. Her plan was to break the cycle. Something that so many people take for granted changes up the pace. There is something guiding everyone
1. The Child Nearest

This fiction has characters and situations which are owned by their respective parties, I.E. not me. Huge OOC warning, but whatever, nothing you haven't seen before.

**N E O N G E N E S I S E V A N G E L I O N  
-An Obvious Tangent-**

It's whispering in the back of my head. She is not present in the apartment. Here I am on this couch; only by watching news programs am I even aware of myself . It is ironic that I have to have the news tell me everything that actually happened. Misato and the few others responsible for me don't attempt to bring me out of it. I only go limp and respond with "yes" or "I'm sorry". I'm sure she feels bad about it, but she has a huge burden on her shoulders.

Asuka also has a similar mechanism. She simply complies, or brings her fist across the face of a person that might insult her with an action she does not care for. I only hope that this is our darkest hour. That I will see a time and place I am not afraid of reaching her and all the others.

I am no longer able to despair my fate. The lady in the television goes on and continues on about the angels; she acts as a proxy to send messages to what remains of the populace of Tokyo III and its outskirts. How annoying, in these moments of rest must you really nag me with these complaints? She is not targeting me directly, but my personality is such that I have to take criticisms in this manner. I want to cry. I want to hold someone close. I want to protect and be protected. None of these things is possible because I cannot feel a single thing at the moment.

Killing things, hurting people, what do I have to show for it? I really wish I could…

"Third."

I want...

"Ikari, get the hell up."

At least I thought she wasn't in the apartment. I'm certain that my face looks nearly the same as hers. The red hair looks out of place against her tired and emotionless face.

"Quit bitching."

"Asuka, I haven't said a word."

"I know your game. You're sitting there and thinking backwards, just shut up. Don't say another word, nothing."

She pauses for a moment and looks as though she is thinking through something. She completes this with a roll of her eyes and brings attention back to my lounging form on the couch.

"We're going. Bring your wallet and a jacket."

When I don't make a move, she creeps toward me and raises her leg, bending at the knee. Suddenly I didn't feel that receiving her foot to my crotch was worth the standoff.

"Alright, just a minute," I huffed shallowly and made for my room. Returning, she appraises me.

"Asuka?"

"Come along," she says with mock exasperation. I follow her as indicated, to the rail station. Walking quickly we catch a train just as its doors were closing. For a good number of minutes we just sit as the train quietly ran its course. She opens her eyes when she hears the name of a stop broadcast over the cabin speaker. Quickly she walks off as the train comes to a halt.

This district is full of retail venues and fancy places to sip coffee. Curiously, the area was populated with a large number of young people despite our war with giant creatures that wanted to decimate us. I became more and more relaxed as she passed clubs and crowds without a second look. It is only a little before the sun is setting when she stops in front of a large glass window on a prestigious looking building. Now that I look, the entire bottom floor is glass windows.

She is knocking on the locked sliding door entrance. A man in well pressed slacks, a shirt, and tie comes to the door and indicates that they are closed for the evening. Asuka reaches into her pocket and brings out a huge bundle of Yen notes and several plastic cards. He warily changed his tune and unlocked the door. Confused, I looked around and saw a large plate in one of the glass walls. It was divided in four parts, blue white blue white. In the ring of black around that the letters BMW were placed in silver plating.

I dumbly followed her lead into what I could only guess was a dealership. The man was as confused as I was, but saw money in Asuka's hand. They began talking and my vision wandered. Appealing cars met my eyes each way I looked. Some of them were bulky but had styles that looked as though they were flying while simply standing still. Asuka and the man were still talking at length, so I walked about through the several cars present in the room. Atop a raised platform a notable car sat. From ground to cab it was a simple black. Not excessively shiny, even the large tires were a black that absorbed the light from the showroom fixtures above. I strolled around, eyeing the car, even its windows allowed no light to pass. A single badge on the back of the car repeated the round logo, and to its side was a blue white and red set of lines to the left of a roman letter M.

It was odd, only now having seen such a car. I've seen giant robots that must cost the price of several million of this one vehicle. Jaded thoughts aside, this is really exciting. Strange how it all looks like one piece, a single solid block. Even the lines of the four doors did not seem as though they separated one part from another. This is a race car isn't it?

"At least you aren't a total write off Shinji." Asuka came up behind me and gestured at the vehicle. I just nodded stupidly.

The man came up behind the two of us looking at the car.

"This particular M3 is not a Japanese model and is no longer street legal due to upgraded parts within the engine. I do have a…"

Asuka cut him off quickly with a hand pushed in front of his face.

"A figure would be nice."

"Ma'am this one is not able to be sold. It also occurs to me that neither of you are old enough to be licensed drivers."

"Sir, I don't expect you to know who I am, but I'll have you realize that this is a situation where you will not be putting things like that in my way." She spoke clearly and in eloquent Japanese. I had no idea she could do that.

Once again she brought out the wad of bills and her Nerv ID. He flustered only slightly at her picture on the identification card.

"Ma'am you aren't the only one who works at Nerv, we have a large contract with the establishment to provide high security vehicles. Flashing this card won't sway the legality of the matter." I was impressed with the salesman, he was very frank and at the same time absurdly polite. Everything in this building is probably a ridiculous level of quality.

"Sir, it is not a question of if you are going to sell me the car or not. It is only a matter of how soon you will see I am perfectly qualified to buy this vehicle."

She is going to buy it? I don't see why she would need it. However, I find myself becoming deeply jealous. Envy over material objects, that's a new one in my book.

Becoming slightly condescending he joked, "So, I guess you are the girl who fights the giant aliens in the big space robot?"

She looked at him with a stiff expression, not saying a word.

He looked at me watching them, I became suddenly uncomfortable. I put my hand on Asuka's shoulder and asked that she should just ask Misato to come with them later.

"Katsuragi? The Renault Katsuragi?" The man looked pale suddenly. I caught on not too much later. Misato's car was extremely high maintenance and she always complained that there were only a few places in the area which had certified technicians for the vehicle. It was a bit of a stretch but maybe this dealer had a service department that Misato had dealt with before.

Asuka held out her right hand, to which the salesman automatically brought his hand out to meet.

"I am Asuka Langley Sohryu, pilot of the second designation Evangelion Unit. This idiot behind me is Shinji Ikari, he is not important."

Even as he was shaking her hand his mouth was working out the name Ikari. Politely retracting his hand, he then bowed to each of them individually.

"Miss Sohryu, Mr. Ikari, I am deeply sorry for any previous disrespect I have allowed on part of our business here."

Asuka was not impressed, but to his credit, the man continued without wavering.

"I am not able to give any one person title to this car, however I can transfer it to the Nerv fleet account under Gendou Ikari's name with the permission of him or his son."

"How is that?" I ask, wondering why my name is on anything aside from the pilot documentation.

"Your father had instructed his name be placed as the head of our account here at the dealership. He orders special vehicles with precautions built in for VIPs and what have you. It may just be an unintentional coincidence, but your name is on the list able to order a vehicle or modify the account."

"It's not why I brought you with me Shinji but you turned out to be pretty useful after all." She whacked me on the back as absorbed all the weird information.

"Miss Sohryu, so long as Mr. Ikari agrees to be the recipient of the car, we can allow it to be purchased via the fleet account. I will remind you however that this is not a street legal car here in Japan."

"It will be issued Nerv fleet plates, will it not?" She asked with a smile on her face.

"That….. well, I envy your power Miss Sohryu."

"It is all a moot point then. Run me up the papers if you wouldn't mind."

He bowed and walked around a corner to what was probably a finance or purchase office.

She turned around and looked at him. She looked down and to the left, he followed her stare. His hand was touching one of the mirrors of the car.

"Shinji. Mine."

I quickly moved my hand away. Name or not, She was the one paying for it. I shouldn't get too excited right?

"Are you sure about this Asuka? Can you even drive a car?" I only asked for the sake of asking, I don't doubt that she could do all manner of things.

"Don't be a dumbass. I can shoot a gun, I'm trained in the use of assault rifles, and to top that I drive one of the world's largest biomechanical robots. Can I drive a car?" She asked the last question with more sarcastic energy than I had seen from her in a long time.

"You'll sign for it, right Shinji?" That was definitely not a question.

"Whatever makes you happy, okay?" I stuttered and stepped back slightly. Did I get to at least ride in it? Was Asuka any better than the notorious Misato when it came to driving? Did it matter?

Asuka smiled when the salesman came back to them standing by the car. He made a brief statement about the warranty and the coverage provided by the Nerv fleet account.

"Details." Asuka handed the pen and the clipboard from the salesman to my hands.

"If you would, Mr. Ikari." Asuka said in a slightly mocking voice. I looked at her bouncing figure, she was alive somehow. I felt put out that my name had to be used like this, but it seemed like a small price.

I signed off on the paper, I didn't have a seal with me, but it did not appear to be an issue. Asuka took control at that point, asking several questions of the man, pointing at a brochure. The salesperson went to get an attendant to remove the car and ready it for use.

"I cannot remember if you know anything about cars Shinji, but this is a special machine." She brightened considerably when I asked why. She went on for a few minutes describing its heritage and level of quality. A younger man came to the car and opened one of the doors, readying it to move to a preparation bay. Asuka and I peered into the cab.

"Holy shit." Asuka marveled at the interior. All deep black fittings, with a dark wood trim. All that I could do was be amazed at its sheer difference from the several cars I did know. The attendant showed abundant glee as he first pushed down one of the pedals and then turned the key in the ignition. The car immediately showed muted signs of life. It did not roar or sputter a violent sound. I could only hear a vague hum from the long engine compartment.

I did hear Asuka make a squeak. The attendant pulled the car into drive and the machine moved out to the special door made for moving the vehicles out of the showroom. It did not sound like a car. I only heard the gentle sounds of the tires yawning from their long rest.

"So, are you coming along?"

"Asuka?"

"Don't know about you, but I'm going on a road trip."

"Where are you going?"

"It does not matter." She was now on the verge of breaking into jubilant dance. I can see it in her eyes. Something that could make her that happy was probably enough to melt my body. I have not figured any of this out yet.

"I am going to just take off for a while. Section 2 can hunt us down if they need something. You sent the last angel packing just a while ago; it would only be decent of them to give us some relaxation time."

I honestly doubt they think in those kinds of terms, but I find myself agreeing with her humorous take on our raison d'etre.

"You'll be a good carpool dummy, so you are welcome to come along Shinji."

"What brought this on Asuka? You don't see too many fourteen year olds driving something like that." As I ask this, she flinches a little bit.

"Do you know what today is; Shinji?"

"December 4th I think. Why?"

"Doesn't matter." She quickly excused the conversation and walked out to watch them prepare the car. I think she might just be excited, but something felt off about her when she directed her attention elsewhere.

When we arrived at the covered bay, the attendant was putting a large piece of material over the front portion of the car. A giant bib for the nose of the car, Asuka explained offhand that it was for preventing dings and wear. Another attendant was adding fuel and oil while the first was now moving a cloth quickly over all the body parts. The salesperson brought in a single plate that read simply Nerv – 0042. He placed it and then screwed the plate to its spot on the hatch of the trunk.

Asuka was now grinning with teeth out as the salesman brought over a black box that contained three keys.

"I am at first obligated to have Mr. Ikari have one key, and as such have provided not only the spare but a key for you Miss Sohryu."

Asuka only shrugged and refused the key when I attempted to give it to her. Several congratulatory babbles later, she and I stood next to the car. I moved to get in the passenger side, but then became aware of this car's foreign origin. I moved over to the right side of the car and waited. Asuka played with the remote key for a minute to get the hang of opening multiple locks. We both sat down inside and sat for a full minute without a word.

I reached out to begin pressing buttons on the console. My hand was batted away and Asuka jokingly exaggerated that one of the buttons might blow up the car. She played around with something on the other side of her seat and I heard a soft motor sound. I watched as her seat moved in a variety of motions to fit her to the driver's controls.

A final moment passes after she presses one of the pedals and then turns the key. The gauges jump tightly and the pleasant hum sings lightly through the car.

"Shinji, thanks for helping."

Asuka is beside herself, a small cackle coming from her throat. She drops the parking brake and shifts the car. She experimentally makes the car tug forward, finding the sensitivity I guess. Behind us through the dark windows I see the three men waving us off from the dealership.

The car navigates easily though dealer's back lot and then out onto public street. The car feels more like an airplane. If it is touching the street, it seems to do so only momentarily.

"I think it's actually a submarine." I remark idly. Asuka just laughs and continues driving down a street following signs to an elevated highway.

"Is it supposed to be faster I wonder?"

Asuka just balks at my stupid question. I think that perhaps Misato's driving has made me a closet speed freak.

"I still have to get some things down. I have not driven much since Germany. Believe me Shinji; I think we are probably the fastest thing on wheels in this city at the moment."

We stopped at the light just before the on ramp for the highway. Asuka made a quick adjustment of her seat and then pulled the belt tight to her body. She held tight to the steering wheel with her left and the shifter with her right. I heard the engine race in time with the movement of her right leg. The engine spooled up and backed off as she ran it up without being in gear, as she put it.

The light turned green and she threw the shifter to the left and then forwards. Shortly there after the car was flying. My heartbeat grew audible in my ears. She was laughing loud and outward into the cab of the car. She pulled the shifter straight down and the car gathered its second helping of air. Explosive force pushed us back into the enclosing seats. When she leveled out into the final gear, we were flying among the sparsely placed vehicles on the highway. They did not delay in moving to one side.

She was still laughing. The car was laughing too. Children set free on the hunt. Look at the two of them, running the ground in search of where the sky met earth. I had not only just found my life once again; I short order I had remembered to fear losing it. Asuka began paying attention to where we were. She touched the small screen on the center console and vocally told it our address.

The soft robotic voice came from everywhere and instructed Asuka in the correct turns to take to reach Misato's apartment. She looked over at me. When she saw my confused look at the center console she laughed that much more. By the time we reached the apartment, Asuka had somehow triggered the voice to refer to her as Miss Sohryu.

As the car parked and Asuka turned off the instruments, I let a sigh of breath loose.

"Different, isn't it?" Asuka asked quietly, her head against the back of the chair. She caressed the wheel and the center console with her index finger.

"It's amazing." I had nothing else to explain it. All at once, I wanted to try it, own it, discuss it, and most of all to fly again. This was not Misato's destruction derby brand of racing.

"So, we need clothing, one of the laptops, and a note for Misato." Understanding her plan I made way to the apartment. She followed: our eyes both caught on the machine sitting there, the ambient light just barely reflecting off its surface. In tandem we shook it off and went into the apartment.

As we quietly traipsed into the first hall of the apartment we were caught by surprise. Misato looked at Asuka and me, knowing that she was going to receive cold and aloof stares from her surrogate children. I froze and contemplated what to think. Should I show Misato how good I feel right now?

Should I be feeling good? Fuck it. Saviors of the world have a right to a little fun time.

Asuka was astute and keen where I failed to be. She walked right into the kitchen and retrieved two cans. Showing her utmost finesse she cracked both pop tops simultaneously with her index fingers. Quickly she tempted Misato's instinct and handed her a beer. The foreign girl also passed the remaining one in my direction.

Asuka must see quick glimpses of the future. Our guardian quickly made a ridiculous face and loudly spoke out a call to cheers. So as not to ruin this cloud I am walking on, I returned the silly proclamation with haste. Our beers knocked in the air and we both brought them to our mouths.

My own bottle only drained half way before I had to come up for air. My young roommate caught our falling guardian as she slipped back into a warm buzz induced slumber.

"How did you figure that one out?" I was baffled that Asuka had been so quick on her feet.

"When is Misato not at least several beers in?" Asuka quickly retorted with a joke: a joke that made too much sense.

She and I tucked Misato in for the night after carrying the older woman to her room. I was suddenly aware that there are normal things in my life. The sleeping lady nuzzled her pillow and smiled. She sleep talked some gibberish to which Asuka bid her sweet dreams.

Treating me to the title of cohort, Asuka spoke low and gave out her list of objectives. The pair of us retrieved our respective overnight bags. Asuka met me at the table and added her student laptop to our modest luggage.

"What should we write to Misato?"

"Idiot," Asuka quickly scribbled out a note in her rough script, "We tell her we went for a drive. That will confuse the hell out of her. I bet the first thing she does is check for her keys."

That genuine laugh is scaring me. Asuka is obviously real; but I'm so afraid that she will vanish.

"Where are we going anyways?"

"If you ask anymore dumbass questions, the only place you're going would be flying into the cupboard." I flinch as she gives a mock demonstration of a right-handed upper cut.

"Right, open road then."

She raised her eyebrow at me and set her jaw sort of skewed. A slight disbelief passed over her features and then she nodded.

"I think you get the idea, for whatever it's worth." Admitting this, Asuka moved past me gathering her bag as she went. She rounded the corner into the hallway; her hair spending its inertia trailing after her in a wide arc. When I trailed her wake into the hall, I noticed that the beer can I had set down earlier was still half full.

"It's half full." I declared with my genius intellect and wit.

"Fucking idiot," Asuka resolved the Zen equation by grabbing it from my hand and holding it up to my lips. She quickly dumped it upside down. I proceeded to choke on the air I had swallowed under the torrent of alcohol. "Better now?"

I looked at her sourly and jaunted to my room to change into a clean shirt. We made short work of locking up.

She shifted the laptop and her backpack and pulled out the key from her pocket. As she approached she fumbled with it until we heard a click from the rear of the car. I gently lifted the trunk and it floated into an open position. Bags were stowed and the trunk pressed firmly closed. The passenger side lock opened as I approached. Asuka crept around the stationary car to its front.

"Shinji, turn on the headlights a moment." This would have been a difficult request normally, but I had been watching everything she did with the car and had a good guess how to go about it. After the headlights and the lower running lights were brightly beaming, she gazed at the car another moment before coming around and then ducking into the driver's seat.

I caught myself before I again asked where she planned to travel to. Probably better that I didn't pursue that. Whatever it was that brought her to such lengths was best left unknown. More over, I wanted to go where she was going rather than pester her about it.

She pulled the seatbelt over her and shifted in the seat. Finding it unsatisfactory in some way she started playing with something to the left of her seat. Curious, I mirrored the action and found the seat moving backwards and humming silently. For a moment, both driver and passenger seats were automatically changing posture and height. I chuckled at the insane luxury provided by such a thing.

"Shinji, glove box, grab me the instruction manual." I stopped tinkering with my seat and pulled out a sizeable leather folder. Asuka laughed at the large parcel and took it from me. She weighed it with both hands and with a laughing groan exaggerated how heavy it was. I brought my attention to the LCD screen on the center panel. At a touch it came to life. What could only be the main menu was expressed in Roman characters.

"Asuka, weren't you talking Japanese to it earlier?"

"I can't read Japanese as well as I can speak it. You can set voice and the text to be different."

I recalled an earlier homework assignment that I had been practically forced to do for her. The menus were not in English, but actually in German. I wonder slightly if this thing has limits. Did they forget anything at all? I browsed through the menu options, and eventually had the computer speaking along side every written option. Eventually the computer asked if I would like to assign a name to the vehicle and its onboard AI.

Asuka looked at the LCD screen and shooed my pointer finger away. She jammed several presses and hit what I could only assume was a confirmation button.

"Input confirmed, car designation and computer name is to be April."

This is getting stupid. Asuka, having either given up or found what she was looking for, dumped the set of manuals on my lap and turned the car on. The engine spun up in a snap of the finger. Asuka again turned her eyes to the LCD. She selected an internet radio stream from several preprogrammed ones. A modern jazz floated out from all around me. How strangely appropriate.

The girl's hand quickly came at my face and I coward away expecting something to ruin my mood. Asuka rolled her eyes and pressed her hand against the back of my head rest. Already the car was shifted into reverse and she twisted backwards to watch as we backed out of the parking spot.

From the corner of my vision I saw the lion's smile take over her face once again. In the back of my head, there were whispers. Throw care to the wind for now. I'll follow this bewitching girl into the night.

After all, it could be far worse.

**Notes: More later? I dunno. All the same, keep the Evangelion fanfiction alive if you have something to write.**


	2. A Man Outside

**Disclaimer:** **I own nothing of value, characters created by me are mine, but the rest is Eva and whomever holds rights to that. This Fic does whatever it wants, including but not limited to: screw with the character's age, character's personality, Eva timeline, and whatever else comes up. If you see any major goofs please leave a scalding review. **

**N E O N G E N E S I S E V A N G E L I O N  
-An Obvious Tangent-**

"So you saw that sketch with the girl and her dog last night?"

I was thinking of something completely different, but his interjection wasn't unwelcome. He was talking about something random just to pass the time. These long shifts were murder on the body and the brain. My fellow officer had a name, but everyone called him Mr. Black or Sir Black. Something to that effect; his dark hair and beard gave him a gentlemen's air.

Mr. Black was giving me something to talk about in the middle of our drawn out speeder watch. I stretched out of the open driver's side window, speed gun still in hand. We talked on through the night usually; sometimes receiving a friendly salutation over the radio from a passing patrol car.

"Nakada, you ever see the big ass robots when they show 'em on the news?"

So close to Tokyo III such a thing was unavoidable. I had actually gone south into the area once, only to be stopped by the fact that the road was missing. A giant foot fall had scorched the earth. The sole of a colossus had been brought upon the dirt and construct. We were routed through a detour. I did get to my special firearms class that day. However the rest of my waking hours I thought of that huge indent in the earth.

I relayed this story to Mr. Black and he filed it away for some other time. He responded with all he knew about the gigantic beasts. Things like the way they were transported, how they were armed, or even type of energy fed the engines that run the joints. Having said that he confided his doubt the things were mechanical. I did not have anything to add.

The speed gun suddenly made three sharp clicks. The most I had ever really heard from it was two. 250kph was definitely not right. Even the burliest of tuned vehicles rarely broke outside of 195kph range on the highway around this area. It was suicide on the sharper turns of this small 4 lane country way. I immediately signaled to Mr. Black and he readied the engine to follow after the offending car.

The car in question blurred past our position. It had the nerve to down shift as it hit the straight portion in front of us. Already Mr. Black was trailing the delinquent driver, as we pulled closer I automatically typed in the license plate number that I saw.

"Ikari, Shinji?" As I said this, Mr. Black fidgeted as he pulled closely behind the dark car onto the side of the road. He placed the cruiser into park and pushed the screen on its hinge to look towards the driver.

"It might not be wise to mess with these guys."

I ask him why and the significance of the plate number becomes apparent.

"What could they do to us? They were breaking the law after all; who the hell do they think they are?"

I was fairly sure a speeding ticket of massive proportions was in order. The vehicle was co-registered under the Nerv fleet of vehicles. To either Ikari Gendo or Ikari Shinji, whoever the hell they were. Mr. Black looked at the back of the car with a thoughtful sneer.

"You're a good cop, kid; don't step on anyone's toes. That's all I've got to say."

Advice I'll take, but I still want to meet the asshat driving this fancy sedan. I mustered my confidence and pulled my weight from the passenger seat. Every step towards the driver's window was a long and intimidating process. I knocked on the window. When it glided down into the car I was met with the face of a young man. Surely he was this Ikari person, but not nearly as old as one would expect.

He explained with no lack of embarrassment that the car's driver seat was on the opposite side. I nodded and went to the other, already opening, window. Here there sat a lovely young woman. Foreign features and a deadly smile planted on her face.

"Good evening officer Nakada." She looked at my badge I suppose. Courtesy will get you anywhere with the exception of breaking the law.

She produced no insurance or license when I asked. She responded that she did not possess proper identification at the moment. I just requested that she give me anything she had, the boy as well. They handed several cards to my open palm. I indicated that I would be right back. I didn't need to tell them that they had fucked up. They just sat somber not saying anything. The girl far more relaxed than the boy, but from what I saw they were both fairly collected.

I walked back to the cruiser and sat down in my seat. Both cards were Nerv IDs. We had been briefed on how to pull information from these. Half of the long serial number on the back was actually the same as a Japanese driver's license and was built into the public database.

"Sohryu, Asuka Langely. Jailbait extraordinaire I bet. That one is a real cutie." Mr. Black joked when he saw her face shot within the profile that our cruiser's small computer displayed. She had no actual driver's license, but her profile displayed several other vague and misplaced permits.

"Since when does a fourteen year old have the authority to carry automatic firearms?" I asked in disbelief, not a hint of humor in my voice. Mr. Black laughed jovially, knowing this was going to be a hell of a story back at the station.

"Nakada, look at that, not fourteen. Rather today is her birthday!" He laughed more and slapped the steering column with his palm. "Hell I wish I was driving that thing around and firing machine guns at that age."

He was right, December 4th. Regardless, when we tried to contact their guardians, we were met with simple voice mail messages. This girl had committed any number of moving violations and was not permitted to drive a vehicle; much less a foreign car that had such specifications.

"Nakada, if we are taking them into the station, I get to drive that thing there." Mr. Black called rights to test driving the beast. I felt kind of disgusted with his easy take on the situation, but maybe that was jealousy. Mr. Black's reputation in our precinct was second to none. I tallied the charges against the teenage girl after which Mr. Black and I stepped out of the car.

The girl and the boy had already lifted themselves out of the car and were waiting near its trunk. I explained the laws that she had broken. She simply listened and nodded occasionally. The boy was tense and worried at this point. Mr. Black smiled at the two and they responded by calming at his presence; funny how he could do that to people. They probably should not be relaxed. There was a huge fee at the end of the girl's tally.

"Because we cannot reach a guardian or custodian for either of you at the moment, you will have to come to the station and hang around a bit until we have you sorted out." I said with some trepidation, expecting the red head to curse and break the asphalt under us with her wraith.

"Fair, one of you will have to bring the car along however, it is not to be left here or towed. Understood?" The girl sung out in a demure voice, unbefitting her young and fiery appearance.

"Ma'am, unfortunately that will not be an option, we…" I was cut off as Mr. Black raised his hand. He extended his palm. She turned her neck to look at him and nodded. She fished the keys from her jacket pocket and brought her hand over his open palm.

"Take care you don't screw up anything." In his special way, Mr. Black stood straight and saluted her. I balked and shook my head. The girl chuckled and took the several tickets in my hand. "Well, let us be on our way." She walked toward the cruiser, I was going to handcuff her for the audacious way she was handling this. In that same thought however, who the hell was this girl anyways?

"Officer Nakada, if you wouldn't mind?" She indicated the holding portion of the cruiser, locked doors needed a special switch to open. I clicked the button on my key fob and the door unlocked. "Ikari, move it!" Before lowering herself down into the seat, she yelled out to the boy. He skittishly moved for the opposite door.

I started the cruiser and watched the BMW slowly pull out onto the road. In the rear view mirror, her eyelids closed some, scrutinizing the handling of the car she apparently owned. Mr. Black shouted a yahoo into our radio and the car raced off into the dark. She grimaced and closed her eyes and laid her head back against the hard plastic rest.

We arrived at the station long before Mr. Black did, but I wasn't about to drop a hint about that. The two of them were both silent at this point. Their faces were masks that gave away nothing. I herded them into one of the glass windowed offices and indicated they could sit, but were not permitted to leave.

I went to the locker room to wash my face. When I stepped out Mr. Black was speaking with his circle of followers, indicating the amazing thing he had out in the parking lot. I went to my own personal desk and started making some calls. The more systems I looked through the more I found myself confused.

Most everything in files related to their social security numbers was in order. Birth Certificates, heath cards, and addresses were all lined up nicely. They were just the framework however. There were no notes at all as to why these children were carrying around Nerv identification. To top that, the girl apparently had a college degree. I threw my hands back up and behind my neck. This is really fucked up. Maybe Mr. Black was right, just let them pass.

From my desk I looked at the office they were "locked up" in. The windows began at waist high, so I only saw the head of the sitting boy. They had been in there for almost a half an hour now. I got up and walked in. Shinji Ikari was stuck in an upright position in the chair and the red head he followed around was napping on his shoulder, drooling ever so slightly. The boy was fiercely afraid of this girl. His body language relayed that he feared even making a peep at this point.

"Do either of you need to use the bathroom?" When I asked the girl sort of numbly woke and stretched her arms above her head. The boy visibly relieved that she didn't seem to notice where she was sleeping. He seemed to be taking her seriously, but what a laughable scene the two made. Never mind the fact that they were some kind of spies or something. She got up and I directed her toward the women's bathroom on one side of the large outer office.

"What do you two do at Nerv?" I just asked the boy upfront. He clammed up and just shook his head. "I really shouldn't talk about it." He just ended the conversation then and there.

Mr. Black came to the window and gave a shallow knock. A large man followed behind him in a black suit. The guy was nondescript to the letter, but it looked as though he had given up. His tie was loosened, his ear piece dangled from his collar on its wire, and his large black sunglasses were tucked askew in the middle of his button down shirt.

I excused myself and went outside the private office. "Can I help you sir?" I asked the disheveled man. "Do you have both Shinji Ikari and Asuka Sohryu here at this station?" He asked without delay. Mr. Black responded yes and detailed the situation to the man. After that the man brought a radio out of his jacket and signaled into it, "Both second and third children are safe and unharmed, 3-4 signing out." A laugh came out of the radio to which he responded, "I know it, I'm canned."

"Those fucking kids," He sighed and dropped the radio and earpiece in a nearby garbage can. Mr. Black offered the man a cigarette which he gladly took and accepted a light. The man was in a daze and Mr. Black began to extract information via his uncanny ability to BS with others.

"Those fucking kids bought a goddamn super car and HQ expects me to keep an eye on them? What the hell?" The man was despairing and bleeding his heart out to us. "Just because they pilot the big fucking robots they think they can do whatever they want, an' of course, big brother lets 'em get away with it."

The glee on Mr. Black's face was unmistakable. We had apprehended the pilots of the giant robots. They were just children though; our lives were in their hands? Nonsense.

The girl came out of the bathroom and made for the glass office again. As she came near us, the man suddenly went over to her and started letting his anger verbally assault her. He apparently had kids to feed and she had really just ruined his day. I looked at the girl, standing silent as the barrage slowly wore out. She brought her chin high to meet at least the shoulders of the tall man.

"A spook?" she asked indignant, "Piss off."

The low growl from the girl angered the man deeply. When she said nothing else and continued standing there, the man seethed and mirrored her a moment. The man sighed out and grabbed the girl and squeezed her shoulder tightly before turning away.

"Best of luck girl." The man just walked off, his anger somehow dissipated without violence. She watched him walk away and out the station's main entrance. Her humor drained for the moment she turned to us.

"Well gentlemen, what is keeping us from my friend and me from leaving?" She asked darkly.

"Ms. Sohryu, the violations committed by you are strong offenses, and your records lead us to heavy suspicion." Mr. Black responded in kind, the smile on his face permanent, but it did not reach his voice.

"What is so suspicious, I'm the pilot of Production model Evangelion Unit 2." She said it out at length.

"That is rather hard to believe miss." I finally cut into the conversation.

"What about it is so difficult I wonder?" She wasn't even trying now. She went back into the glass office and spoke some unheard words to the Ikari boy. Mr. Black and I looked at one another. This was a cookie, so to speak.

"Chief" we both spoke at once and nodded. We briskly cruised to the office. We caught the Chief right as he was taking off for the night.

We filled him in on the situation and he made some calls, he apparently had a hotline to a Nerv representative. I watched the situation get slowly swept under the rug. I scoffed as Chief hung up the phone and intertwined his fingers on his desk.

"Yup, not the first time, not the last time." Chief just shrugged. "Let's go meet these kids before we let them off the hook though. I've had a few of these lately, people with Nerv IDs just pushing their weight around." The chief was a respectable man, but I guess he had seen these things before. He took a moment extra to mock Nerv employees acting important.

"Nakada, Black," He indicated us, "Show me to them."

Chief and Mr. Black followed me back to the office were the two teens were left. Chief walked in first and we went in after him. Chief introduced himself to the boy. Shinji Ikari looked shocked at our entrance but waved with his left hand and meekly smiled a hello.

The girl, he was afraid of the girl. She was laid out on the bench, using his thigh as a pillow. His expression and posture was stiff and strained. The red mop of hair covered her face and she appeared to nap soundly.

"She is kind of tired I guess." The boy said very quietly. Surely if he were to disturb her nothing good would come of it. She must have him strung up like a puppet. Poor kid makes me wonder if maybe he likes it that way.

"Miss Sohryu," Chief cleared his throat and got her attention. Just like earlier, she slowly awakened. She threw her hair back and brought her self up from the bench they both sat on. "You've been cleared by your association with Nerv of any transgressions, but I suggest that you not go about thinking that you are allowed to do such things."

"Right, so where does one get a driver's license this late in the evening, in where ever this place might be?" Again, despite the comment being rather grazing, her expression was neutral.

"You are in no way certified to drive a car." Chief was a little pissed at her response.

"Oh, alright," her trite sarcasm evident might have boiled Chief's anger if it weren't for Mr. Black stepping in.

"Really though! Do you guys pilot the Evas?" He inserted that question over everyone's voices. Asuka brought her arms across her front and spread her feet on the ground. "He runs the purple one; I pilot the red and superior model." She brought out a practiced voice of pride. The boy looked up at the ceiling with a roll of his eyes. Without looking the red head kicked him in the shin with the back of one foot.

Chief just brought his palm over his eyes. "Fuck it, I didn't see this. Nakada, Black, get them out of here." Chief went home for the night. Mr. Black drained more information out of the two and we gradually worked our way outside. Which is to, we finally walked out to the parking lot after Black introduced the pair to the entire station.

By the look of the moon, it was almost tomorrow. Asuka, as everyone now knew her, walked to the car. Ikari turned to us and announced that he was sorry for the trouble. I said nothing but Mr. Black casually blew it off. "Don't worry about it."

Asuka opened the door to and looked back to Shinji and brought her thumb over her shoulder, signing that he should hurry up. Shinji walked down the steps and over to the luxury sports car.

"Asuka! Happy Birthday!" Mr. Black called out to her as she closed the door. She rolled down the window and smiled back at him. Then she waved as the car silently rumbled back to the street.

I'm not exactly old or anything, but this stunt was making me think I was getting on in my years. Mr. Black was thoroughly pleased with himself. I'm thinking I'll follow him to the bar after our shift gets done.

Damn kids these days.

**Notes: Sweet. Short, but I try. More if I feel obligated enough to finish. The night isn't quite over. A reviewer pointed out the birthday thing, had to look that up again. Thank you!  
**


	3. Inside her Head

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, history, or settings of Evangelion. As you might have noticed though, I do like to screw them up and use them in my own visions. Anyways, here is another go at it.**

**N E O N G E N E S I S E V A N G E L I O N  
-An Obvious Tangent-**

There are days where all I see is her hanging in front of me. Every year, today especially bad; it's burned into my eyes. I've been running from it ever since. Now I contemplate how many days I have lain out on my bed, in the searing heat of Tokyo III midday, thinking of nothing but that image.

Imagine how I feel when I think that the world might not have a place for me. The sad crying girl inside feels so misplaced among the people who see the utility of my person. Never mind that I hide behind my strength and pride; imagine that it hurts to lie, think that all I want is acceptance.

But what of Kyoko, what was she looking for when she left this world?

This all started when I came on that question. Did she find some happiness? Was it hers alone? How will I find mine?

Where does a girl find a decent person to share her thoughts with? Forgive me for being a bitch with exacting standards but, I do put my life on the line for the rest of the globe. Then again, I'm probably all kinds of mentally fucked up.

Someone needs to just love me. Smile for me okay?

Jackass over here would have probably asked about the sad look on my face if he weren't sleeping. Shinji is a good person. In the back of my memories I've seen him save us all hundreds of times. Places that we've never been before, but that we can pick out so easily. At times, the dreams of us both dying at the hands of something else are too much to take. I wonder if all of those Asukas can see my world in their dreams too.

But hey, I'm just tripping out, drive instead.

I don't know where I am, but April says that if I follow her turn map I will arrive at a place to crash for the night. Hell I wasn't even really sure I could drive this well, but all parts of this car work so smoothly, as if it were adjusting to me. Even the AI trains its questions. I ask for whatever and it asks what kind.

"April, add a gas station to the route." The small map on the console adds another pin and adjusts the directions and accompanying squiggly line. After the incident with those two police, I decided that I would keep a lower profile. The small gas gauge on the left of the display was dipping towards the zero mark despite my best efforts not to speed. In short order the gas station will show up and I'll grab a snack. A little caffeine might end this shitty line of thoughts.

The gas station is closed, but the pumps will still accept cards. No loss, I think the spot were headed to will at least have some vending machines. This car takes some screwing around with to get the fuel door open. I find the button near the bottom of the driver's seat. Peering into the car, Shinji is just knocked out there, I tap him on the shoulder but he just flips his head the other way. Idiot is out cold.

The gas pump has a small latch that makes it flow open until it detects that the tank is full, I click this into place and let it do its thing.

It's really hot here. The moon sits in the sky, just like a clock, slowly displaying every hour with a change in location. Or rather, a clock is like the moon. Whatever, it is not something that is important. As I lay my arms out on the top of the car's cab, I can't help but notice all the things around me.

Fuck, including that.

A large black sedan pulls up to the gas station and two large men step out, decked out in the attire that I think makes them more obvious. Traditional spy wear never made much sense I think but they keep wearing the crap anyways. I don't get it at all.

They come to the other side of the car and I pull my chin up from my shoulder and give them a look. The one further away looks in the front window and then pulls out his radio. He quietly called in that they had found the second and third children.

"Second Child, you and the Third are to come with us back to Tokyo III." He did not say anything more but began walking over to where I was leaned up against the fueling vehicle.

He stopped his advance when my cell phone went off in my pocket and I quickly opened it. He backed away as he heard the angry shouts of a one Misato Katsuragi.

"_Asuka what the fuck are you up to! Are you still at the police station? How the fuck did you get arrested? Is Shinji alright?" _She asked all of these at once and I rolled my eyes at the Section 2 grunt that now looked very confused.

"Misato, I'm not arrested, nor am I in any trouble. Shinji-idiot is just peachy; in fact he's taking a nap as we speak." Misato cooled slightly at hearing this; she then went into the interrogation phase. What were we at the police station for, why the hell were we so far from Tokyo III, and for that matter, how the hell did we get out there. All the questions you would expect.

"_Are you feeling okay? Is your head on straight and everything?"_ One thing I'll always give Misato, she talked to me like an adult when there is something serious she is concerned about. She was never too condescending with her words.

"We just went out for a drive, like the note suggests." I heard her put the handset down on the table, making a noise through the phone and scrambled around looking for something. Silent victory was had for my team.

"_Did you and Shinji-'kun' elope and run off in a fast car or something?"_ She tried to hide her relief by exaggerating the honorifics on Idiot's name. No my dear, your keys are not missing. In fact, I don't think I would ever choose your car over mine. That was something to think about later. She might actually be kind of envious.

"You've got one part of that right, but no, Shinji's daddy helped buy me a birthday present without knowing it." That threw Misato off I bet. It surely wasn't the reason Shinji was brought along with me, but I could tell them whatever reason I wanted. I'll think up something later, right after I figure out why I dragged him with me in the first place.

"_Birthday present? Gendou? Oh fuck you're kidding!" _She regained composure and asked me a whole bunch of crap. She obviously had forgotten about my birthday, but it's not something I'd grudge her for. Its not too far to say she had the fate of the world depending on the decisions she made.

"Misato, I know we are a lot farther from home than we should be." She cut me off right there and had a small flight of rage. "No, no, we're not running off to a different country or anything y'know? I just kinda feel like shit, I'm not myself and I needed some fresh air." Misato didn't have a response ready for the truth. I continued, "Idiot face needed some time to find himself too. So I brought him with me." That was good, she might buy that.

"_If an angel pops up, we're all fucked because you decided to take a vacation and shot gun wedding with our other pilot."_ Misato was both humorous and serious with that one.

"So, I'm a slave to your agency? Think again," something small for her to chew on. "I'm just trying to get my mind back where I need it. You should be thanking me for doing you a favor. Hell, I'm even doing a two for one. Bonus: When you fix one mentally fucked up kid, get another done free!"

"_Asuka, I know things are tough, but this is much bigger than that…"_

"And if one of us simply trips on a pebble in the middle of something so much bigger and the whole world is brought to its end. What then?" I tossed that and ended her logical statement. I know how fucking important it was that I pilot the Eva. You don't need to tell me these things. With the Eva, mental state was the most crucial thing; I didn't need to bring that up. Misato sounded exasperated. Not to mention still hung over, having been interrupted in her sleep.

A little time to myself would be nice.

"Look, Misato, I'll have my phone on, I'll even give you the address of the place I'm headed. Do me this favor." A little pleading wouldn't bring me down too many notches. This is the most we've spoken in months; surely she'll have a relaxed conscience.

"_That is entirely irresponsible of both you and me. There is no way I should let you run off and use my poor little Shinji for all your explicit desires!" _ This bitch thinks she is funny. At least she is joking and not straight denying my proposal.

"Ah, you want me to show your little Shinji how to be a man Misato?" Turnabout is fair play, as much as it disgusts me.

"_fuck, its too late for this shit. Asuka, give me the address. I'm going to send a VTOL over there and call it a night." _I wonder if that is all she was going to do. Color me grateful that she was allowing anything at all.

"Thanks." When I try to say things that I actually mean, they always come out short and powerful. I wish I could do that more often. Misato continued grumbling, she received the address of the small resort and then I asked that she tell the Section 2 agent to bug off. She said she "couldn't" do anything about him. Great, thanks, big help.

"_Good night Asuka, use protection!" _This fucking woman loves to get in the last laugh doesn't she? She swiftly cut the call and left me to my own devices. Oh well, as long as the guys at the Geofront have an idea where I am; where we are. Besides, another few wounded egos won't kill anyone. The pump had clicked off somewhere in the middle of our conversations and I removed it and closed the fuel cap and door.

"Alright," I threw my hands up and told the spook that I'd follow them back, unless they wanted to follow me back to Tokyo III.

"You'll be coming with us in the other car, get the other pilot."

That does not suit me at all, fuck-head.

"Oh, okay." I went back around to the driver's door. He didn't move, maybe he thought I was pulling out Shinji. I began to get into the seat and he came running for the open door. I bashed his hand in between the door and its fittings. He screamed his whole vocabulary and nursed his hand as I started the engine. He moved away and I pulled the door closed without obstruction. The other one tried to pull one of the doors open but I had already whacked the lock all button.

First gear, parking brake, April takes care of the lights and the other things. Quickly we pull from the gas station. Just as quick, they had rushed back to their car and were now pursuing. April indicated left at the next light, second gear around the corner. As my foot pulls up from the clutch, the engine reaches out to the wheels. Shinji woke up somewhere in the middle of this and started asking questions. Ridiculous situation we're in; but at the end of the day, I can't think of anywhere I'd want to be more.

Third gear up an on-ramp; this is au revoir bitches.

"Au revoir bitches." I like that so much I have to say it out loud. They are far enough away now that I can lose them and probably just take my exit for the resort April had picked out using my requests.

"Au revi-wha?" Shinji asked in sleepy Engrish. "What did I miss?" I looked at him strangely. He was rubbing his eyes out a little. A yawn followed his shoulders and back making some creaky noises from sitting all night when he repositioned himself.

"Please tell me I didn't miss the bank robbery. I was looking forward to that." Sarcasm from this kid? I've now seen everything. While I'm busy cackling at his remark he asks April where our destination is. I guess he read the instruction book more than I did.

"Oh, I guess we're meeting Asuka's Yakuza buddies at the hot springs inn." That was really out of character. What the hell did you do with the Third Child?

"Ikari, what got into you?" I asked him rhetorically.

"A lot of really bizarre things have occurred in the last couple hours or so. I'm just kinda trying to adapt. I think this is how I should be acting at this point. What about you Asuka? How are you today?" It has been months since I've been asked how my day was.

"Oh just fine. You?" Granted; he was half asleep, and probably a tiny bit angry, but I like him like this.

"I'm having a great time, thanks for an invitation to your birthday crime spree." He didn't know the half of it. "Happy Birthday, Big Sister." He was doing a very flat imitation of the thugs on a drama show. A Yakuza group led by a badass young girl half all the other member's ages called their leader Big Sister, a Japanese thing I guess. Idiot thought he was being funny. At least he was paying attention.

"Thanks punk." Idiot went on with the ruse a bit further asking stupid stereotypical mafia questions. Big sister, would you like to go collect protections today? Big Sister lets go get some concrete mix. Might I clean your handgun for you Big Sister? When did he get so relaxed?

"Seriously though, where are we going?" Done joking already huh? I briefly explained the conversation with Misato. This branched out into our little run-ins with Section 2. When he began to vocally doubt the safety and reason of our situation my hand reached over to his shoulder.

"Here it is," I begin when he goes silent. "You get out here, and call Section 2 and they come get you." That hangs in the air for a second. "Or, you follow me and go enjoy a laid back evening at what I can only hope is a nice little resort. I thought you were already onboard here Shinji."

After all Shinji, I'm not going to hold your hand through life. I just decided that I should get out more. I brought you along, but I don't have a solid reason. I need you to start making up something.

"Thanks." Good man, just shut the fuck up and be thankful. If only more people could do this. His head lulls side to side as I shake his shoulder playfully. "A hot spring inn though?"

"Yep," It better be pretty damn close, I'm nearly dead. Speak of it, April directs me to bear left. My hand leaves his shoulder to shift. I prolong the contact just a moment with a firm press.

Cool car. Dead Mother. Shinji. Food. Death by entities representing heaven. Naptime.

I pull into the small out of the way parking lot for the very well kept inn. The engine turns off and the cab lights slowly bring a golden presence to the inside. He pulls himself out of the car first.

"Alice, trunk please." He commands tiredly in Japanese. I hear a click from the back of the car. "Read the Fucking Manual why don'tcha," hums off of my lips. He comes around to the driver's side and opens my door. Our backpacks are slung over his shoulder, but they shift downward when he offers a hand to me.

Why not.

Slowly I twist the ignition off and unbuckle the seat harness. He begins to pull the hand away. Free of the loop of the harness, I grab his left elbow a tug. My brain is definitely not up to speed at this moment, but his hand around my wrist leaves a pleasant tingle.

One, two, three, and up I go.

We walk through a casual garden, its ambient blue lighting accents seems only to touch the area below the knees. An older woman brings us a check-in book, takes a small amount of money from me and shines a beautiful smile at Shinji. I wonder how old this lady really is; in her eyes swirls of maturity and knowledge spin.

She politely asks if we've eaten dinner yet. Shinji responds that he might like some fish and rice. That is all well and good. I ask, rather plead that they might make me a large chicken fillet sandwich. The woman takes the both of us in, laughing at something we did I guess. She daintily moved to an area in the traditional wood hall and hollered low to a person not visible. "A hungry tired foreigner and her well mannered Japanese sidekick would like some food." She said so with great effort to stifle her humor.

I can't speak much for Shinji, but I was kind of too tired for this crap. That's what I would have told the woman if she wasn't the most friendly beautiful Japanese lady I had ever met.

"Chicken sandwich?" I asked while grimacing.

"Chicken sandwich and the lover's suite my dear." She said in German. German? Am I hearing shit now? Shinji just looked crestfallen at the two of us. I began a light-hearted conversation in German with the woman explaining that Shinji was just here as a retainer for my person. She gave a fun rise of laughter and then showed us to our room.

Rather than a traditional tatami styled place, this was a western type room. There was a large king size bed past some frosted glass in one corner of the expanse. Near the middle was a boomerang shaped couch that would suit nicely as a bed. I don't even have the energy to call them perverted idiots at the mere thought that I and this boy would sleep on the same bed.

Not that it would be the first time something like that happened. Eerie synchronizations still pop up between him and me every so often.

"I call bed!" a safety measure to put him on the couch without argument. Not that he would ever contend that unless he was in a really bad mood. The pretty innkeeper just chortled and went out to grab us the meal being prepped in the kitchen.

I freshened up in the bathroom, soon after the innkeeper brought us delightfully stacked trays of stuff. Previously mentioned stuff just happened to have very well prepared chicken "sandwichettes" included. She stuck around for a few moments while we ate and made idle chit-chat, tasting some of our dinner along the way. Misato was pretty good at switching through languages, but this woman was a genius. Strange how just one little pretense can make two people good friends.

Shinji was already cuddling into his part of the couch, our hostess quickly went and found him a blanket and cutely tucked him in. She was picking up the trays from the food and then bid us goodnight. On her way out she playfully stuck her tongue out at me and indicated a now cozy Shinji Ikari on the couch. I rolled my eyes at her.

I lifted myself from the couch and lurched for the large bed.

From behind me on the couch Shinji called out.

"Happy Birthday Asuka."

I looked at a wall clock; it was still around twenty-three hundred hours.

"Thanks for coming along idiot-face."

I murmured that last one as my face hit the pillow. I was still in the process of slipping off my socks using only my feet.

Socks

Car

Mama

Chicken sandwich

Pillow

Shinji

Shinji…

**To be concluded **


	4. World at Large

Thanks for reviews and stuff everyone. This would be the cheap end game chapter. Comes complete with difficult plot twist and magical this and that. It was a lot of fun to write this stuff. Unfortunately it was not very much fun to go over it and make sense of the whole thing. If something almost makes sense I'll ask that you fill in the blanks. I'm happy that I could at least add something to this big archive of fiction. Max thanks to anyone who has written or will write good stuff keeping in with this particular fandom. Good night (morning technically).

**N E O N G E N E S I S E V A N G E L I O N  
-An Obvious Tangent?-**

Third Impact was the result of so many hundreds of factors. At the end of the day, me personally, I see it all as his fault. After instrumentality, we awoke on the shore. I honestly would have stayed in the ocean that captured all of humanity's essence. Only at his bidding, his somehow godlike hand in the process did I come back out.

So, we lay on the shore; the edge between the ocean of souls and the burning creation that was once society. He was angry, some how not pleased with his decision. I no longer have a say in this. It is his world, his sandbox. I feel that I had never had a direct connection with the events that took place anyways. His hand shaped everything.

He had rolled over me, choked me, and then began crying. He could have saved everything. Perhaps he did make the right decision: a true history of our lives left no sympathy for the people he had abandoned to the ocean. During instrumentality we had watched betrayal, agendas, misplaced love, and so much wasted potential scattered the world that he had just destroyed.

I held my hand up to his cheek. With what breath I had available, I told him that this is his entire world, all his doing.

"You can change this place, it is still undecided. I don't feel whole."

He looked down at my one open eye. Quickly he began fading around the edges of his body. I no longer felt the sand under me. Instead my body became a cloud. I was only visible. My hand passed right through his shoulder. His body and the sky became white noise, and then all settled into black.

Before me, a large mirror reflected my body's image virtually popped into existence. The bloodied girl wearing a body suit blinked back at me, one eye bandaged thoroughly with limbs incapacitated on either side. Then suddenly, Pieces of the image began taking flight from the mirror. A flock of them left its surface, startled birds on a walkway. Each spread out from the puzzle image of me, now missing segments. Some burst into bright stars of light, others immediately paired with others and began playing small movies of my life.

My fractured puzzle-self and I watched them, each a different story being told. From elsewhere, blue shining lights came and joined each small "screen". Shinji entered each story, some depicting themselves slowly, some over and over again. He's testing the waters I guess.

Some were terrible, smaller screens depicted us murdering one another. Other smaller screens were pretty self explanatory; they showed us in tangles of flesh, coupling endlessly in some dream dimension. Some showed us happy, somehow disconnected from one another. I paid attention to several at once, keeping the small ones out of sight. Several of the largest ones played out in real time.

One of the larger windows continues its entertaining story without repeating or terminating at a certain point. When I concentrate hard enough, I become absorbed into the picture, the world around me not the black void, but in this case a large hotel room. This picture had enough of the mirror pieces that its version of me was competent and nearly my full self.

Some of the movies were completely alternate versions of my life, or his related to mine. Ones like this were "do-overs". This world contained the Angels, the Evas, him, me, and the rest of the humanity, all moving and living. I can't help but wonder if the other people and living things I see have their real souls, or if they are just a bent piece of his imagination. Perhaps, like the pieces of mirror, some of the people had fractions of their soul involved in his multiple cinematic dreams.

It wouldn't be too hard to say that the drunken Misato's portrayal had a piece of the older woman's concern and happiness. The two jolly police men, perhaps in this dynamic state had brought their opinions out from the ocean of souls. The beautiful lady proprietor of the inn holds fast; wanting to watch over the decisions that would decide the fate of the lives we pursued in the past.

Which brings up another interesting question, from the start, was I living my life for the first time when Shinji pulled the trigger on instrumentality? Am I, or was I, Asuka prime?

Even with reality split in so many directions right now, that line of thought seems somewhat far out, even so. I wonder if the Asuka napping on that hotel bed questions her genuine nature. I say this in jest, but she would receive my stamp of approval. Kind of odd, many of the fragments of the mirrors take on a different occupation or hobby, each of them funny and interesting for their own reasons. The thing however, is that Shinji always stays, always becomes involved with the Asukas who seem to burn with passion.

That aside, who knew I could play the piano that well? I had watched that small story unfold, how interesting and beautiful to watch what you could become. Could I just become any of these? Was it his choice? Do I get a say in the matter?

Speaking of him, his blue lights had been separating off of several of the small worlds in the screens and redistributing rapidly to different screens. This sounds rather strange, but maybe having more of the small stars of blue indicated his favor between the playing time lines. Going by this logic, most of him was watching the story with the car. I wonder if I couldn't just borrow that clone body to put some hurt on Shinji just for a few minutes. Asshole is taking his time in this creepy End of Time Cineplex.

As I had done many times already, I focused in on the story. I couldn't feel, but could now at least see myself walking across the floor of the hotel room. His and my approximations lay apart on their different surfaces; the quiet murmur of the room comforting compared to the noiseless vacuum behind me where the screens waited.

Experimentally I touched some of the slack on his pants where it meets his sock. Like a cloud, I pass right through him. Fair enough, puzzle girl can't screw with things. Or rather, I can't mess with anything but myself. The red glove of my suit does not pass through the me laying out cold on the bed. Its strange that my arm, up to the elbow, seems to go into the body instead of coming out the other side.

A quick browse around the room confirms that I'm not being watched by anyone but myself; silly, but ultimately necessary. An uncommon sensation occurs to me as I find my body holding itself on the bed I cannot feel. That's a new meaning to being beside yourself. Even a heavy breath doesn't reach the girl's hair, an invisible wall that separates her and me. The two of us lay prone facing each other. I reach in to hug the less tarnished version of myself.

As simple as that, I am her now. I actually hear out of my ears now, my hands feel the soft sheets beneath me. The ghosts of damage done to my original body still hover in their respective places. That thick set of wrappings cast around my arm weighs heavily against me despite its pristine appearance in this body. The feeling of the muscles moving up and seating myself on the edge to the bed is refreshing, if not exciting.

While I feel slightly sorry for the girl previously occupying the body, she was just a fraction of me to begin with. Welcome home I guess. Time to take account of things, world ends, a bunch of worlds begin, I'm a ghost in the wall. Now would be an excellent intermission for a vacation. As I get up and stretch, it becomes obvious that it is time for a bath.

"While I'm here," I speak softly and rap Shinji on his sleeping head several times and then run off using long and silent lunges. Indecisive little fucker deserves it even if he doesn't realize it. The dry wood floors feel alive beneath me; the prim corridor of the inn looks vibrant even built with the Japanese sense of modesty and the low light. A sensory overload gives me shivers up the back.

Yup, just for a little while, a nice bath. No fucked up time-space bullshit, no transcendental teenage girl, and Shinji-idiot can just take a fucking nap for like an hour. Watching him, I don't think this one has planar-scale homicide on his mind, but perhaps they all have the potential to create the third impact endgame in any of these timelines.

Oh, listen to me, little miss quantum philosopher.

"Bah." Shake it all off and grab a towel. It made sense; the Asuka in this version was simply looking for a relaxing occasion to escape everyone's pace. They were all dragging her to hell. I however have a nice grasp on everything. If Shinji is the great destroyer, I am the great mother. Maybe the part of me playing in this story saw me there watching. She allowed me to take control, or had no choice against "seniority". Regardless of all these things, I'm here now.

After the end of the world, this kind of pleasant bubble is maybe the closest to reality I will get. Being absorbed into this body, I could no longer see the far off entrance of the outer world I had come from. It had rested like a hole in the sky before, but now did not break the continuity of this place.

This place is very modern, now that I think about it. A presence of the new mixing with the old or at least what I would assume are traditional parts. A comfortable room holds baskets and some benches. The room then splits off into two shower areas, but ends up back in one place. Of course the damn car picks a mixed bathing facility. It is no longer her/my birthday, judging by the clock on the wall. It won't matter; I doubt any one is out there in the open air bath.

Her body is lovely naturally. The jeans slide off and the shirt comes off. No marks or undesirable discoloration. No missing pieces flawing some of the other bodies I've studied as of late. This is only as fucked up as it sounds. Humans adapt after a few rounds of something; even if something is being a ghost watching the creation of a new world.

The large area is an open view, but everything is obstructed by a thick fog. The blue moon shows dimly through the miasma engulfing the hot springs. Hidden orange-yellow lights display the edge of the wooden walk and some large rocks placed in the middle of what reminds me of a big pond. This water better be toasty.

There is an easy to remember shelf made out of rock nearest me, it was either meant to hold my towel or I'm just really practical. The water is far more pleasant than I could ever imagine. Not a hot tub by any means, but crawling across the bottom warms up my body and spirit. From the big rock in the center, the muted lighting barely makes a silhouette describing the doors to the shower rooms.

Only thing I would possibly desire right now is a personal music player of some type.

Rap, trance, rock, classical, anything I could sing to, wordless or otherwise. The joy of feeling something is overpowering. Even Shinji's play list of drawn out classical suites would make me shiver. More than anything I want right now to forget. Not forever mind you.

I want to just sleep. To rest in this body, my mind firmly seated here in this world; until tomorrow if possible would be nice. Maybe he will just decide that this place is okay, lets settle down here. It sounds partially wrong to say such a thing, but this is close to how I want to be. Close to how I would have originally lived my life, had the world not been hanging from the last hair of sanity as we grew into adolescence.

The door from the showers opens lightly and out steps a familiar shadow. The water flows up to my cheeks when I scoot into an unlit section of the spring. He lowers one foot into the spring and then just seems to walk the rest of the way in. He and I are going to have a talk. The shadow of his body perks towards the sound of me displacing water as I floated over to him; walking with my palms as my back and legs floated on the surface.

"Asuka?" he asks then suddenly makes to get out of the spring. He turned and covered himself with his towel.

"Did you have a good nap?" I asked, remaining submerged in the water . I trailed him and clenched one of his ankles with the hook of my elbow; a dirty move on my part. "Sit-down," I pulled his towel and threw it at the edge of the wooden deck bordering the water. He instantly immersed himself in the water, covering himself with his arms.

"Nice isn't it? Shinji, Oi…" He was looking upwards and inching towards the exit. He turned full swing and swam / palm walked quickly. He hurried as he heard me stand out of the water and walk in front of him. He flipped the other way when I sat down in his path with my legs crossed like an Indian from an old western.

"'Afraid of naked girls Shinji?"

"Hardly, but girls who are crazy scare the shit out of me." He threw back over his shoulder, arms around his knees he just sat in the water and breathed out.

Not the cute response I was looking for, but things take time. Doing a funny moon jump with my bottom I came up behind him. I pushed down on his shoulders with my palms and waited for him to release tension from his back.

"No point in being ashamed of the human body y'know." Not like I had a lot of room to talk, but this is more of an experiment. Yea, that's it, experiment.

"That's not it," he sighed and his head came to rest on his left arm. "You're not yourself at all. Days ago, you were quiet, angry, and not sociable! Now look at you, you're dragging me around and acting like this is something normal!"

Touché I guess. Perhaps I'm trying to make him the whole Shinji who knows everything that the real Shinji would. Waking up the tired soul who is searching for home. So that he might just wake up long enough to see that I'm here. Were he to remember everything I'd ask him if we could just stay in this place for a duration. We could take it easy for a while.

"Is it so bad?" I pulled my arms around his neck and brought his back to me. "I want this to be normal." Well, being closer anyways. When's the last time you received a legitimate hug? I'm sure this Asuka won't mind this turn of events.

"You're crazy."

I kissed his cheek and he shivered roughly.

"Fuck off." I pulled away from him and turned. I laid my back on his sloped form. A sparkling feeling resounded where skin touched skin. I pulled my hair out from between us. He grumbled and put his arms around his knees. The muscles in his back lost their tenseness after several minutes of doing nothing. As I transferred more weight to my human lawn chair he huffed.

"Not bad at all." I brought my hands to the back of my head and raised my elbows out. Further mockery might include a mixed drink and a large sun hat.

"Asuka, please stop joking around."

"What seems to be the problem Shinji? I still think you're afraid of me, pretty as I am." The most childish retort I could possibly find. I doubt the situation was in any sense dangerous. Still, I wondered where Shinji might break out of sexual tension.

"Insane," He said only half serious by the sound of it. Even my head was a bit lost in the sensation of our bodies touching. Don't screw with Mother Nature I guess.

I'm not in the position to tell Shinji what he should be and should not be favorable of. However I find myself enjoying this sandbox situation.

"Too aroused Shinji?" I'm sure he is, I certainly am, but this is not the time for mindless things like that.

"You confuse me so much. Changing moods on a dime like you do. Did this you jump out of a different world only to bother me for a while?" I don't think he meant to get that close to the truth, but startling none the less.

"Funny story about that…"

He staved off attempts to playfully grab him in spots I should avoid. I don't know that he was really angry, but his back slid out from under mine and he raised himself. He said that he was going to the bathroom in a frustrated tone. As he walked out of the spring I caught glimpses of his body despite him covering it awkwardly with his hands. His image faded into a shadow as he walked farther away into the fog.

"Strange"

I lay on my back in the water looking up to the muted moon in the sky. It might be time to go in before this body starts pruning out.

Pruning, yeah, but I wonder if it would be comfortable there.

There, you know.

With him.

In there.

It might be truly empty. It might be warm. It might be sexy.

"Oh fuck, I'm really done for now." I whisper exasperations of my idiocy to no one.

Normally people use the expression 'I've got nothing to lose' in a situation where they have everything hanging in the balance. It seems like my true calling has been to react to all the events of my life. Rolling with punches and punching back on occasion. For all my gusto, how many times have I actually struck first? Or what I mean to say is, how many times have I considered what is in my best interest.

I've not a thing to lose, not a thing to gain. I'm an honest person when I have to be and this has me wondering. Where will I go once Shinji has resolved this massive game? After he is done playing dress-up with me and himself, where will the cards fall? Furthermore, will I get a good hand?

I'm all strung out here; babbling in my head.

"Hup," I twist in the water and bounce to my feet. Through the changing room, I leave clad in a big towel, clutching all of my clothing in one hand. Back in the room, I listen to the sound of the bathroom's shower running and look around for the travel bag that I had seen packed. The water shuts off and he shuffles around in the bathroom. Shinji walks out in some loose pajama pants. Finding me in the middle of clothing myself he turns in embarrassment to the wall.

"It's alright." I call at him as he avoids looking at me.

In a style not his own he walks to the back of the couch and leaps over it supported by one hand. He sits there facing away from the bedroom side of the suite.

"Shinji"

"Asuka," He somberly calls back my name as I had said his. I remember on and off that this is not my world. I feel like getting absorbed right now. I'll show him that it is okay.

As if watching myself again, I walked over to the couch and sat beside him. I stared forward much as he was doing. Without looking for his hand I reached over for it and took it carefully; interlacing his fingers with mine. My perceptions attune to him, feeling his eyes close, his body twitch as he breathes irregularly.

"Why are you doing this to me?" He asks, probably thinking this is all just a mind-fuck game I'm playing with him.

"I don't know."

"You don't know why you're tempting me like this? You're doing this just for fun?"

"No!" I spin to look at him quickly with the emphasis showing on my face.

"You're a very close person to me Asuka, I can't figure out if you know that."

"I think so too." Great, now my breathing and thinking is accelerating. There are a few moments of quiet between us.

"Shinji, just share things with me, that's all I ask of you." I feel like choking on each word. How is this so hard?

"Like a friend? Dates, lovers, all these things I don't understand really?"

"Whatever you feel comfortable with, just know that I want to share it with you."

"Why me then?"

"Don't ask me the things I can't answer. These kinds of relationships happen!" As if I knew all about these things.

"I cannot understand you doing this. I mean, you're acting really different than I expect."

"Well then follow my lead in faith that I know what's good for you." He laughs lightly at my matter of fact explanation. A crack of humor finally shows on his face in this terse conversation. This is getting me all worked up.

Shinji asked more questions. Prodding about how he should act, what he should consider us.

"I've never really done anything like this before either Shinji, so just pay attention and learn from mistakes. I guess." I'm sure that instilled a bunch of confidence in him. Yeah, a whole bunch.

The hand in my own returns the grip finally.

"Nothing even has to change if you don't want it to happen like that." He doesn't say anything back.

I'm done with the adolescent drama we're working through at this point. My back and my mind are suddenly at ease with his mild acceptance. My jaw opens wide and excites a huge and unsightly yawn.

Ghosts can't sleep, but they do get very tired.

The borrowed body and I, the aforementioned ghost, felt the onset of nap time all at once. I thought about brushing my teeth, for whatever reason. I tugged him off the couch and to the bathroom. Stubbornly we danced in front of the mirror as I brandished toothpaste and brush in my other palm. He was made to switch hands so that I could brush my teeth in a less awkward fashion without him leaving.

Dream Shinji was well put together; for a Shinji anyways. I ogled him as his eyes refused to look at anything but the door out to the rest of the hotel room. The scrubbing sound against my teeth was comical compared with our image in the mirror. A skinny young man in pajama pants holding the hand of a young, rather impressive looking, lady in modest underwear. I don't think I trust him, but he might be the key to getting back any sense of reality.

"Fuuuuaaaaa," A twisted sigh through a mouth of toothpaste. Now that I think about it, we've done this before; brushed our teeth together during the sync dilemma. Question is, did this iteration of Shinji experience that? He may have already cleaned up, his gaze suggested that he wanted nothing more than to leave the bathroom.

Obedient posture in place he followed me back out to the bed. All the thick bedding made a swish of air as I turned it over. I hopped in with no hesitation. He came after and pulled the covers over me and tucked me in a straightforward method. Momentary quivering fell over me as I settled. This particular comfort faded when I became aware of him moving away.

Yeah, yeah; I get it. You're not going to do that. Don't want to bite from that apple. Just go on thinking that way; see if I care.

Looking around, my view met his back heading towards the couch.

"Idiot," he keeps walking.

"Hey dumbass," twitch visible.

"Shinji, get back over here." I sit up and lay against the pillows and head board.

"_Ikari_," I draw out his family name to get his attention, I can only guess that it will work this time around.

He faces me after sitting on top of the couch-back. "I'm afraid." This is a new sort of sincerity from him, but I'm beyond caring at this time. Now that I'm paying attention, I'm kind of insulted. The girl he was dealing with several hours ago was looking for reasons. The woman he is dealing with now knows what she wants. No one said it was going to be easy.

"The key to a man's soul is new experiences, now get the-fuck over here. You'll like it." I point sharply downward with my index finger next to me on the bed. He continued to stutter some excuses at which I proceeded to exaggerate the pointing motion.

Now frustrated beyond measure, I brought the bedspread off the mattress and ran at him with it. I dodged the frosted partition and pinned him to the couch surface.

"Fine, the couch is alright also." I suggest this while manipulating the cover to trap him. He accepted the embrace through the blanket without too much struggle. Still with my arms around his neck, we fussed with our position on the not too large couch. This exchange boiled down to laughter, I've so little to say about the experience with the exception of truly how pleasing it is. Laughing and stealing a kiss then to play keep away when it is returned. The uncommon stress uncoils; a spring slowly unwinding.

A mutual agreement finally found us lying on the bed. From somewhere Shinji finds that holding me tightly to him is accepted and encouraged.

"It's nice isn't it?" I ask him. He brings his lips to the back of my head, slightly bumping a kiss into my hair. We might try something more. I'd love to try of course. For now though, I think that which is found will be better than that which can be made. Without further ceremony we rested.

I awoke still in the body that resembled my own self image. The fact that I had actually shut down and slept was a godsend. Shinji's limbs still tangled around me, leaving a comforting radiance. This world is nice, I'll definitely put my word in for this one.

Squirming around I managed to get him into a tight hug. He came to as his midsection was squeezed. There was a muddy expression of confusion on his face when he found me so near.

"What if this all goes wrong?" He asked that and I bit him. The mark on his shoulder was dark pink before he grabbed it. "What if, Shinji? What have you got to lose? We're pretty stuck together; Eva, Tokyo III, and whatever else."

I got up to go for a shower. Over my shoulder I mentioned that we just need to go slow and enjoy the things we can share. I left him to dwell on it. Time to clean up some.

I silently question if the other me in this body would have agreed with all the actions I've taken during my stay. Tough luck! Besides the terrible amount of hypocrisy, there is no reason why he and I couldn't be happy.

Stretching out after the shower my pretty smile in the mirror was stopped suddenly.

The car! I still wanted to drive the car. With speed I dressed, slamming the door open I did not delay in telling Shinji to get ready. His face was having a hard time deciding if he should mad or laughing.

"GO GO GO," I prompted the poor guy with a stiff palm to the back of the head. The fresh air in the hall hit my face as we finished grabbing our things and exited the room. A brief conversation with the caretaker of the inn took place. The woman's personality has a strange uplifting quality. I forget my situation when speaking with her.

The sun outside brings color to the garden surrounding the entrance to the inn. I remember the sunglasses that were packed by these hands. As we near the machine I pull out the polarized specs and the key. Sometimes memories of my birth country are hard to find or to stand. It would be hard to explain why the car has anything to do with it.

Well, if nothing else, the car looks German from every angle. With any luck I can drive it as competently as my other self. We stow our gear in the back and jump in. Shinji is looking weirded out. My guess is all the changes being made. Hey, that's life for ya.

"Are you going to show Misato?" Now that is an entertaining idea Shinji. Sitting in the driver seat heightens my senses just a bit. "April" becomes aware and runs a small bunch of things across the screen on the center console. Green circles cover all the fields and April announces all systems nominal. Shinji mumbles some more intrigue about the car. Space ship this, Jupiter something or another.

It takes a second to get the car in gear after it spins up. One has to pull hard to the left and then forward to get this damn thing in reverse. Shinji looks at me warily when I fail to repeat the motions I had managed the night before. I'll get it quickly enough.

Ah, a light press is followed by a hum and the car gently pushes backwards. Driving a car is a differing task when you pilot something like the Eva. The simple naunces and minor challenges of driving a machine rather than a being seem like a sport.

The car did not shift as easy as I would have expected. The curvy road from the inn was navigated with caution. As with anything, small repetitions of an action will teach one quickly. The clutch needed to be pushed in fully for a smooth shift. The deceptive feel of the pedal threw off my fumbling sense of things. Quickly the small adjustments paid off.

From the beginning of an on ramp I pushed my bottom back and braced into the seat. As the tachometer needle rose a sudden force drew the car endlessly forward for a moment. The suspension jerked softly when the clutch disconnected. A satisfying click from the gear shift was followed by the engine. It growled in a lower tone as the wheels traveled closer in concert. It all flies by as the needle rises and falls; telling me when it needs a different ratio with the high running sound.

This pleases me.

It was a shock when Shinji suddenly spoke up. He indicated the blue and red lights following us.

"Really?" I accepted the violation bill and was quickly on my way back to Tokyo III and the apartment. Fuel is not cheap in these times, but then again, neither are speeding tickets apparently. Just getting "home" required that I sign a total of three moving violations.

"This one was not built for a leisurely drive." I remarked after the 2nd ticket.

"You or the car I wonder?" Shinji stated rhetorically.

"I couldn't tell you."

We arrived home and went up to the apartment to gather and cook something for a midday meal. Rather, Shinji did all this and I stretched out on the couch content with myself. He brought some food into the living room and set down my portion on the coffee table. I pulled my legs off the couch so he could sit down.

"Thank you for taking me along Asuka."

"Yup, we'll do it again soon."

Misato chose this time to arrive back from wherever she had been. She appraised Shinji's presence and then my own when she walked into the living room. Looking back we just ate from our respective bowls.

"Well?" She asked crossing her arms in front of her. Shinji slurped on some bottled tea in the air hanging from that question. He smiled in slight embarrassment. Misato smiled back and her edge softened a bit.

"Wanna see my cool car?" Animatedly I bubbled and oozed happiness so that Misato would have no idea what the hell to do about us. Indeed she took the bait and shrugged with false disdain. She indicated that I should show her my used rust bucket of a car. She knows I have better taste than that. I can only imagine she knows what to expect. Perhaps she had already talked with section two?

"Technically it's Shinji's car. I helped pick it out." At this she waved us out the door and I guided her to where I had parked outside. The aggressive professional look of the car stood out amongst most of the other vehicles. I clicked the door unlock switch from my pocket. The lights blinked on and the car's profile became even more notable.

"Should have seen that coming." She didn't seem too surprised, but of course the car was a magnet to the eyes. Browsing it over, there were surprised "oh"s that she could not hide. Finishing she made a scrunched up face that didn't tell me what she was thinking. The driver's side door was unlocked and she ducked in.

"Are we going for a drive or what?" She got a feel for the seat and controls. I looked at the key now in my hand and then at her with a doubtful expression. She joked lamely about how she needed to approve its safety for use. If her precious charges were to be riding around in it certain levels of quality were required. I looked at Shinji and he put his palms up and backed away. I laughed all the way to the passenger side door.

With just her and I the Tokyo III circuit commenced. It might just be the crazy woman driving, but the machine feels even faster when you have fewer things to hold onto. When we did get home Misato was beaming; I was nauseous. It's getting pretty late. Misato congratulated me with a happy birthday slap on the back and went up to the apartment.

I stared at the hardly visible silhouette of the car parked in the withering sunlight. All is good, all is right. I find that Misato was already getting trashed and talking on the phone about the story she has been piecing together. her surrogates' small vacation was going to be big talk at the "office".

The older lady was not aware of much anything by the time I stealthily inserted myself into Shinji's room. He was knocked out on top of his covers. Gracefully stepping up onto the bed I fell into the free part of the mattress and then cuddled to his back.

"That may take some getting used to," he spoke aimlessly. He may have not been very awake right then.

"Feel free to start on that any time, I'll be right," I yawned mid-sentence, "here." I moved him so that I could get under the blankets. I pulled him down under and into an embrace. Thought was lost to slumber for some time. I found myself watching over Shinji and my stand-in sleeping on the small bed. Time to roll out I guess. I'll check in later for her reaction to waking up next to him. She might already have an idea of what's occurred. Dream or not she is me after all.

This is fun of course, I'm going to see more of these worlds. Only thing is, I hope there will reality again. Traveling between these small pockets of warmth and dreamlike qualities may become a chore some day. Until he makes up his mind, I'll be there in the hub, watching over things. Windows to other worlds similar or foreign bring exciting adventures to mind. Not unlike a video game, but different in sense of immersion.

I'd stay in this one and enjoy myself but, hey, **nothing ventured, nothing gained**.


End file.
